March Supports Vegetarianism as Climate Solution

People
from all walks of life will be joining together to march
through Wellington City Centre on Saturday 31 May with one
united message: “Be Green, Go Veggie and Save the
Planet.” Earth Walk, birthed by a group of vegans, has
attracted interest from different corners of New Zealand,
including the Hutt Valley, Taranaki, Hamilton, Nelson,
Golden Bay, even as far as Christchurch and Auckland.
Earth Walk’s mission is to alert people that a plant-based
diet is crucial if we want to avert catastrophic climate
change.

Organisations supporting Earth Walk, include the
NZ Vegetarian Society, Save Animals From Exploitation
(SAFE), along with other organisations and individuals.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister, Helen Clark, the
Government is being asked to place a high priority on
promoting a plant-based diet and educating New Zealanders
about the link between diet and climate change.

The
link, they say, is clearly documented in the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organisation’s report,
‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’, where animal agriculture is
cited as producing more Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GGEs) than
the entire transport sector globally, amounting to almost
one fifth of the planet’s emissions. In NZ the
agriculture sector is the biggest producer of GGEs - a
staggering 49.2%.

Earth Walk highlights a solution and
encourages people to find out for themselves the detrimental
effects of eating meat on the environment. Vegetarianism
is just one of a few simple solutions with a huge impact,
they say, and yet, the majority of people are unaware how
much they can help reduce GGEs just by adopting a
plant-based diet, both on an individual and global
level.

Hans Kriek, Campaign Director of SAFE adds:
“The impact of eating meat on our environment, our health
and the animals is the single most important issue facing
our planet today. With our natural resources running out and
our planet heating up, the adoption of a vegetarian life
style is the only way forward.”

Five days before
World Environment Day, which is being hosted by New Zealand
this year, Earth Walk’s message has a call for urgency
which has had very little exposure so far. A spokesperson
for Earth Walk put it this way: “The unprecedented
Arctic ice melt in 2007 has put a very different angle on
Climate Change. Not only are we at risk of more frequent
and more severe weather changes, but scientists are now
talking about the enormous amounts of methane gas on the
ocean seabed which will be released as the oceans get
warmer. The huge quantities of the gas, an estimated 400
gigatons, if released, would seal all our
fates.”

Earth Walk participants will ensure their
message is loud and clear. Displaying placards such as
“Green Your Life, Green Your Diet, Save The Earth”, the
1.5 hour march culminates at the Beehive where the letter
to the Prime Minister will be submitted.

A spokesperson
for the small group of vegans who planned Earth Walk said:
“Many of our greatest thinkers, philosophers and
scientists were vegetarians, including Albert Einstein,
Mahatma Gandhi, Rudolph Steiner and Leonardo Da Vinci. We
have Olympic gold medallists such as Carl Lewis and Edwin
Moses, tennis champions such as Billie Jean King and Martina
Navratilova, many actors and celebrities who all enjoy the
benefits of a plant-based diet. We hope that Earth Walk
will be a wake-up call and an inspiration to others in NZ
and around the world to adopt a vegetarian diet for their
health, for the future of the children and for preserving
our Planet
Earth.”

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